They didn’t head towards the academy right away, contrary to expectations.

Mrs. Dreslin, Planos, and Cailysi had visited many other villages, and they needed to collect the participants from those villages. It would take at least two weeks to reach the nearest village, due to the fact that Lejus and Meir were separated from the rest of the continent by a mountain range, and in total it would take a month to arrive at the school. In the end, the size of their group would swell to twenty-six people.

Hearing this, Aurelie frowned. She disliked the idea of being surrounded by strong people, while having no idea what intentions they harbored.

‘Then again, it isn’t as though I have no enemies in this group.’ She thought, sneaking a glance at Farn. He avoided her gaze. Aurelie looked away to, ignoring the pang in her heart.

He was an enemy now.

She could understand his feelings, but she couldn’t allow herself to get killed by him. She had things to do, and people to find her way back to. She couldn’t stop now.

Mrs. Dreslin, the leader of their tiny procession, held up her hand, making all of them halt. She took off her pack and called for them to set up camp. Silently, Farn and Aurelie complied. In front of them, Planos elegantly shrugged off his bag, while Cailysi bad-temperedly threw her stuff to the ground.

Twirling around, the female pointed an accusatory finger towards the panting and sweating Gallo, her eyes sparking. “This is entirely your fault! If you weren’t so slow, we would be at the next town by now!”

Gallo ducked his head. He was an eighth stage Apprentice. There was absolutely no way he could keep up with Masters like Aurelie or Farn, much less Cailysi, who was a Grandmaster. Being berated like this was unreasonable, but he didn’t have the guts to tell her that, so he just took the scolding.

Aurelie, on the other hand, wasn’t afraid of the female bully.

“Oh, be quiet. There’s no point in yelling at him, the only thing you’re accomplishing is making yourself look like an idiot. Besides, no matter what, there’s no way that you guys could cross these mountains in a day.” She replied, pulling her red-hair into a bun and letting the cool evening breeze blow against the back of her neck.

Cailysi flushed, her hands clenching into fists. Aurelie prepared herself for an attack, the ring on her hand depositing her knife into her hand.

But just as the other woman was about to lunge at her, Mrs. Dreslin flashed between them.

“Stand down, both of you. I will not allow in-fighting. This isn’t a picnic. There are Spirit Beasts on this mountain. What would you do if the sounds from your fight alerted them to our presence? Please restrain yourselves!” She scolded. Though she addressed them both, it was obvious that it was mainly aimed at Cailysi. After all, Cailysi was older and had experience travelling in these forests.

Cailysi’s face darkened. Even if they had attracted beasts with their fight, the teacher, who was an Elemental Apprentice, could defeat them easily. So, while all that had just been said was true, she knew there was another reason why Mrs. Dreslin had stopped their fight: She didn’t want Aurelie to be harmed.

Aurelie was incredible. She was a third stage Master Realm practitioner despite being so young, had stopped a war from happening using nothing but her wits, and, most importantly, was the primary suspect in the murder of an Elemental Apprentice. She was definitely someone who would shine brighter as she gained more power. If they could rope her in, then it would be incredibly beneficial to the Seven Heavens Academy. This knowledge only made Cailysi even gloomier. She had come on this journey to show her power off to the weak country bumpkins, not to be outdone by a third stage Master!

Aurelie, too, understood the true reason for the scolding fairly quickly and smirked at Cailysi from behind Mrs. Dreslin, watching as Cailysi glowered.

~~~~~~~

Aurelie ducked into her tent, thankful that they were travelling so that the food was at least palatable. Sitting in the center of her tent, Aurelie opened her bag and took out a slim manual. Mrs. Dreslin had given her this before they set out. It was a high-tier Rare Level Cultivation Technique, two tiers higher than the one she currently used.

Quickly reading through, Aurelie began to cultivate, drawing her Spirit Power through the new pathway. It was hard at first, because there were a few small energy channels in her body that she couldn’t find, but she gradually got used to it. The gift was incredible, the volume of World Energy that surrounded her increasing ten-fold.

Suddenly. the ball of her Spirit Power quaked, and then it began to erratically spike. Seeing this, Aurelie gasped slightly, then frowned and pushed the energy through the cultivation path at breakneck speeds. All the while, she kept an eye on the ball within her. It’s sudden motions meant that she was close to breaking through the bottleneck!

Motivated by the sight, Aurelie absorbed more and more World Energy, and actually increased the already insane speed of her Spirit Energy through her cultivation path. Finally, after over hour, she heard the sound of something shattering within her, and the ball within her abdomen grew about twice as large as it used to be.

She was now at the fourth stage of the Master Realm.